Re: Request for documentation of PID handling functions

From: Oleg Nesterov
Date: Wed Jul 30 2008 - 05:52:29 EST


On 07/30, Pavel Emelyanov wrote:
>
> David Howells wrote:
> > Hi Pavel,
> >
> > Can you please provide documentation for the PID handling functions you
> > supplied in commit:
> >
> > 7af5729474b5b8ad385adadab78d6e723e7655a3
> >
> > In particular I'd like to know what locks are required when. I'm trying to
> > determine if in this piece of code:
> >
> > read_lock(&tasklist_lock);
> > ret = 0;
> > if (pid != task_pid_vnr(current))
> > ret = -EPERM;
> > read_unlock(&tasklist_lock);
> >
> > the lock of tasklist_lock is necessary.
>
> The RCU protection is enough to get pids from tasks. However, the pids
> are detached under the tasklist lock write-locked, so provided you're
> *already* sitting under it the RCU is excessive.

Yes, tasklist OR rcu is enough.

But, since the task == current, the code above doesn't need any locks at all.

Unless this code runs after exit_notify() of course, in that case we need
rcu/tasklist and task_pid_vnr(current) can return 0.

Oleg.

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/